Saturday, January 26, 2008

Pen and Ink Portraits - NBA Basketball Players

Here's another one in my series of portraits of NBA basketball players, again drawn in my old-school pen and ink mode. Since the last few were of NBA big-men, I thought I'd take a stab at a cool "little guy" so I chose Chris Paul, the ultra-talented point guard for the New Orleans Hornets (I always want to call them the Charlotte Hornets, but that just shows my age). I've dug his game since he first came into the league and he's playing better than ever these days.

I started this one with the idea I'd get it done fairly quickly, during an evening off, but then it all got away from me. The pencil study/underdrawing was easy enough, and I drew that up in a half-hour or so, but then when I went to render it out with my pens, I ran into a bunch of problems and actually ended up drawing it three times! First, I was half-way through an attempt when my trusty Hunt 108 pen-nib started acting up on me (they just don't make pens like they used to!) and getting all clogged up. It ended up scraping paper and putting down very 'globby' lines, so I had to scrap that drawing and start over. Then, on my second attempt with a new nib, the nib actually split on me leaving a huge ink blob right in the centre of the drawing. Now, unfortunately, pen and ink is a medium where you get no room for error, so I had to throw that drawing away and start over again. I was so upset I had to take a break and play some videogames -- the kind where you shoot people with very large guns. The third time was the charm though, and I was able to finally finish the portrait.

Like all the other NBA basketball portraits I've done, this one was also referenced from an issue of Slam! magazine, and you can check out my pencil study for it below. If you want to see my other pen and ink portraits of ball players that I've posted on my blog, you can see them here, here, here and here.

Please note that I do not do accept any private commissions (comic character sketches, family portraits, etc). I also do not sell any prints of my work online. Sketches and prints can usually be purchased at events that I am personally attending. Thanks for your understanding.

If you're interested in purchasing any of my original comics-related art, please visit here.